Patrick answered for Warren when first questioned by the reporter, who last week struggled to get an answer out of the former Harvard professor on the topic.

“Even if we don’t like the question, we gotta let it be asked,” Patrick said, before discussing Warren’s views on education and infrastructure.

When asked to answer for herself, Warren declined.

“I defer to the governor on this one,” Warren said.

Warren has faced a firestorm of controversy since it was revealed in April that the American Association of Law Schools directory listed her as a “minority” between 1984 and 1995 based on her slight Cherokee heritage, which she claims to have learned about through her family’s oral history.